As the Herbarium coordinator, Lindsey Worcester manages the collections of The Morton Arboretum Herbarium and coordinates its volunteer and affiliate community.
Worcester has worked in herbaria at three institutions (Kansas State University Herbarium (KSC), Oklahoma State University Herbarium (OKLA), and currently at The Morton Arboretum Herbarium (MOR). She has always enjoyed the interconnection between research and collections and works to make the herbarium an open resource for researchers and the public. She coordinates volunteers and interns to collect, mount, accession, database, image, and file specimens, quality checks herbarium records and images and makes them available for the public.
Worcester enjoys systematics research, and is currently studying basswood/linden phylogenomics, and is interested in asking questions based on MOR’s specimens. Having worked on research projects has helped her understand the importance of vouchering specimens for research, in addition to having specimens collected from many different collectors over time for data points to understand species distributions, and help inform where to plan collecting trips. Worcester’s training and experience helps maintain and curate The Morton Arboretum Herbarium’s over 190,000 specimens.
Lindsey Worcester is the contact for Herbarium requests and visits.
